Kwiatkowski wins Milan-San Remo

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Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) won an excruciatingly close photo-finish sprint on the Via Roma in Milan-San Remo, topping world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), with Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep) in third.

"After previous editions in 2013 and 2014 when I've been unlucky, winning Milano-San Remo is an incredible feeling," Kwiatkowski said. "I'm thankful to my teammates, they did an incredible job today. I didn't expect Sagan to attack on the Poggio. After he did, I expected a bunch sprint but he maintained a high speed at the front. I focused only on my own sprint. I can't believe I've beaten Sagan!"

Sagan sparked the breakaway over the top of the Poggio, and was quickly joined by Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe, two daring descenders who could keep up with the world champion's legendary skills.

Leading the entire descent, Sagan looked to his companions to take a pull, but they only briefly obliged, leaving Sagan to do the majority of the work to hold off the hard-charging peloton. As they took the final curve and had the finish line in sight, the peloton came into view behind them, but they had left it too late.

Sagan wiggled his elbow for Kwiatkowski to pull through with 500m to go, but the Pole wisely declined, and as Sagan charged hard for the finish line, Kwiatkowski drew alongside. Sagan violently strangled his bicycle trying to squeeze out just a few more watts, but the Sky rider threw his bike to the line, snatching the elusive Milan-San Remo victory from the Bora-hansgrohe rider.

Alaphilippe finished narrowly behind for third place, and the peloton crossed the line only five seconds later.

"The only thing missing today was a little bit of co-operation from some other riders," Sagan said. "But it's okay. I did my bit and I'm happy with what I did. That's cycling. You race for 300km and you can win by a little or lose by a little. I did my best."

How it unfolded

The race got off promptly under sunny skies in Milan. Inspired by the good weather and not fearing the nearly 300 kilometers they were facing, ten riders took off after only five kilometers: Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale), Mattia Frapporti (Androni-Sidermec), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF), William Clarke and Tom Skujins (Cannondale-Drapac), Ivan Rovny (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Alan Marangoni (Nippo-Fantini), Umberto Poli (Novo Nordisk), Federico Zurlo (UAE Team Emirates), and Julen Amezqueta (Wilier-Selle Italia).

The gap stayed between four and five minutes, with FDJ, Bora-Hansgrohe and QuickStep sharing the work at the head of the peloton.

With about 120km to go, the gap started dropping dramatically, hitting 2:20 at the 100km marker. Quick-Step Floors had moved to the front of the field and picked up the pace, a move which some of the other teams seemed to question.

The peloton finally eased up a bit, not wanting to catch the group too soon, and allowed the gap to come back up to about 2:45. Bora-Hansgrohe showed up at the head of the field to help keep an eye on things.

The gap bounced up and down but the ten in the breakaway calmly continued on their way, working well together. With 60km left, they had less than two minutes. Unfortunately, as the gap disappeared, so did the sun, with clouds increasingly rolling n.

The first action came with 45km to go. AG2R, at the race without a sprinter, sent Alexis Gougeard up the road. He got a gap on the peloton but was unable to make up ground on the leaders and was soon back in the field.

That lead group started falling apart with 39km to go. Poli, at 20 the youngest rider in the race, was the first to drop back, soon followed by Frapporti and Zurlo.

The breakaway and peloton flew down the Capo Berto, with the gap dropping under a minute. Katusha gathered at the front of the field.

With the Cipressa beckoning, the pace kicked up again, with Bahrain-Merida leading the charge. With its 5.6km length and a maximum gradient of 9%, it has in the past played a decisive role. Today it saw the end of the breakaway, which was caught shortly after the start of the climb. Rovny, Clarke, and Amezqueta held out longest but they too were doomed.

A handful of riders jumped on the way up but were doomed when Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) joined them. He was too dangerous and the field pulled them back. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) gave it a try as well, being briefly joined by Androni's Mattia Cattaneo. Sunweb then had Dumoulin and Simon Geschke at the head of the field pushing the tempo to drop as many sprinters as possible.

Bahrain-Merida led the rapid descent on the narrow and curving road. As they hit the flat, Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) took off, followed closely by Philippe Gilbert (QuickStep). A group of about 10 built up a small gap before Sagan and Bora-Hansgrohe led the chase to catch them, and then remained at the front. At the back, riders who had been dropped began catching on again.

Tom Boonen, in his last Milan-San Remo, took over the lead work in service of his teammates.

The Poggio, the last climb, saw Sky at the front, but Dumoulin again popped up at the front. The Dutchman pushed a gruelling pace before leaving the work to Sky and Sagan.

Shortly before the summit, at one of the steepest sections, World Champion Sagan took off. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) followed. The trio flew down the descent, taking every risk on the tight hairpin curves, arriving at the bottom with 16 seconds and 2.5 km left.

Trek-Segafredo rode desperately to close the gap and bring John Degenkolb into position but they had no chance, and five seconds after Kwiatkowski took out a surprise victory, the peloton was led to the line by Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin).

The @Milano_Sanremo podium. pic.twitter.com/8VD8LKh0K0

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